A couple who were beloved local artists and LGBTQ advocates were found dead in their Buffalo, New York, home Tuesday, sparking local memorials and dozens of online tributes.
The Buffalo Police Department is investigating the deaths of Mickey Harmon, 40, and Jordan Celotto, 37, as a double homicide, Buffalo Mayor Christopher Scanlon said during Wednesday. There is no indication that the homicides were a hate crime, police said.
A friend went to the couple’s home Tuesday afternoon after one of them didn’t show up for work, police said. The friend called 911 and said he saw a man holding a knife, according to a police report. When police arrived at the home around 4:22 p.m., they found both Harmon and Celotto dead, the report states.
The man with a knife cut himself and dropped the knife when officers arrived, police said Wednesday, adding that the man is currently being treated at the Erie County Medical Center. Police said he did not appear to know the victims.
On Friday, police arrested Bryan Monge Chiclana, 34, on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder, according to . The DA’s office alleges that Chiclana unlawfully entered Harmon and Celotto’s home Tuesday morning through a basement window and hit them with an object. Both victims died of blunt force trauma, the Erie County Medical Examiner’s office found. Chiclana was arraigned Friday and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
Harmon and Celotto’s deaths sent shock waves through the Buffalo community, where they were both well-known artists and organizers of local LGBTQ events. They lived in the city’s Allentown neighborhood, which is affectionately known as the city’s “gayborhood.”
Mitch Nowakowski, a city council member, became emotional during the news conference Wednesday when he said the victims were both his constituents and his friends.
“I refuse to allow Mickey and Jordan’s memory to be attached to these heinous crimes,” he said. “I want everybody to know that these people were artists, were people of the Allentown community who made it better, who made things happen, who worked with me ever since I got into office. When you look and see Allentown, its vibrancy, its festivals, its artwork, think of them, because that is who they are.”
Pat Sandora-Nastyn, who was close friends with the couple and said they’d been together for about five years, described them as “pillars of the queer community” and the arts community.
He described Harmon as a “Buffalebrity,” meaning a Buffalo celebrity, because he was so well known in the city. He co-owned a store called The Good Stuff, where he sold his and .
“He is one of the most brave people I ever met, just unabashedly himself, not afraid to be loud and vocal and visible,” Sandora-Nastyn said, adding that Harmon was “chaotic in the best way” and very supportive of other queer people but also the Buffalo community, generally. A scroll through shows he often hosted LGBTQ events and .
Harmon was also a prolific muralist in Buffalo.
“You could not leave a building without turning and seeing at least a dozen murals by Mickey Harmon on the street,” Brian Bartlett, another close friend of the couple, said Friday. “He really made his mark throughout the city.”
Jay Aquarious, a hip-hop and R&B singer who has lived in Buffalo for most of his life, said the first time he met Harmon was at a local cultural center in 2015, where Harmon was dressed in drag as the video game character Princess Peach. They later teamed up to hold an R&B and Hip-Hop Pride event in 2023. Aquarious said he always appreciated that diverse representation was important to Harmon when he held events, and he would feature poetry, hip-hop, burlesque, ballroom and drag performers.
“It wouldn’t just be all like white people,” he said. “It would all be different colors, different shapes and sizes. It didn’t matter to him — you were on that stage and you’re going to be performing as long as you have skill and you know who you are and what you’re going to do, because that’s who Mickey was.”
Celotto, according to all three friends, was a foil to Mickey’s bold personality and was warm and loving. He was a DJ, and Bartlett, who is also a DJ, said they had a shared love of disco and house music.
He said Celotto organized a monthly dance party called “Disco Milk” at 26 Allen, a local club.
“There’s just such an effervescence and joy in that kind of sound,” Bartlett said of disco, adding that “Jordan really emulated that in his selecting.”
During the news conference, Nowakowski, the council member, said Celotto would laugh about how people often talked about Harmon, but that he supported Harmon being “the big personality that he was.”
Bartlett said the couple paired together well.
“They were the perfect counterparts to each other’s personalities, and they pushed one another to be the best version of themselves, as well as those around them,” he said.
Tributes to the duo poured in on Facebook throughout the week, with some friends sharing videos of Celotto DJing and one sharing a video of Harmon twerking in the background at a community event where someone was trying to hit a piñata.
Harmon and Celotto’s families and friends have set up GoFundMe fundraisers to help cover their funeral costs and support their families, and they have raised about $50,000 each.
Harmon had organized an event called Queertopia, a showcase of queer talent in western New York, that was scheduled to have its first show Saturday. The co-creator of the event, Scott Rankie, said that the event will still be held at Nietzche’s, a music venue in Buffalo, as a remembrance and celebration of the couple.
The couple’s friends told NBC News that the loss will be felt for a long time throughout the LGBTQ and artistic communities in Buffalo and across western New York. Aquarious said he hopes people continue to spread the joy and support the couple brought to the community.
“I just hope that with this magic that they both were making, I really hope it just keeps going,” he said. “Even if they didn’t know them, just keep the magic going.”
